Construction

Brian Salsgiver Safety Professional of the Year

Jeremy Taylor, Turner Construction Co.’s safety director, has been influential in creating a proactive safety environment, paving the way for the company’s best safety record in 40 years.

Turner’s overall safety metrics have significantly improved with Taylor’s leadership. From 2014 and 2015, Turner’s recordable incidents fell from 13 to three, and lost-time incidents from two to zero  all while total worker hours increased by 7 percent.

Taylor accomplished this by empowering his safety team to work closely with field workers and subcontractors to understand safety concerns and create solutions to address them. Taylor and his safety team fully established Turner’s Building L.I.F.E. safety program on all projects; created a “safety dashboard” on Turner’s internal SharePoint site to streamline access to safety documents; and revamped jobsite orientations to audible orientations in both English and Spanish, helping to break down the language barrier and give workers confidence in fully understanding all safety rules and regulations.

Taylor also required the safety staff to take ongoing education and get involved with outside safety organizations. Encouraging his staff to learn more makes the whole team stronger and makes the jobsites more knowledgeable, safer places to work.

Taylor’s motto is, “Safety is not private, it should be shared so everyone can learn from mistakes for a safer future.” Additionally, he implemented a cut-resistant glove requirement policy on all jobsites, and developed a stilt-use policy to help ensure that jobsites are taking the proper safety precautions required for safe stilt use.

Taylor is active in Seattle’s safety community as an OSHAS 18001-certified auditor, is a panel member for the Construction Management Association of America, a district representative for the AGC Safety Team, and a qualified CPR first-aid trainer. He is a frequent guest speaker at various young-professional events, and a board member of Rebuilding Together Seattle.